Wind Farm

Ontario Wind Resistance

Some residents living in the vicinity of a wind farm are suffering from adverse health effects and disturbed living conditions. They need help and support. It’s important to have someone to talk to who understands.

Worried families living near proposed wind projects with special needs or pre-existing medical conditions such as epilepsy, cardiac issues, inner ear problems and migraines are welcome to join.

The symptoms start when local turbines go into operation and resolve when the turbines are off or when the person is out of the area. The symptoms include:

1) Sleep problems: noise or physical sensations of pulsation or pressure make it hard to go to sleep and cause frequent awakening.
2) Headaches which are increased in frequency or severity.
3) Dizziness, unsteadiness, and nausea.
4) Exhaustion, anxiety, anger, irritability, and depression.
5) Problems with concentration and learning.
6) Tinnitus (ringing in the ears).

Not everyone near turbines has these symptoms. This does not mean people are making them up; it means there are differences among people in susceptibility. These differences are known as risk factors. Defining risk factors and the proportion of people who get symptoms is the role of epidemiologic studies. These studies are under way. Chronic sleep disturbance is the most common symptom. Exhaustion, mood problems, and problems with concentration and learning are natural outcomes of poor sleep. See Dr. Pierpont’s credentials here

This page was created to help if you are experiencing disturbed living conditions and/or noise & health problems since the start up of wind turbines near your home. It is some sound information on what to do and who to talk to:

It is important to start a daily diary. We cannot emphasize this enough. While it may sound like a tedious chore, it will keep track of everything on a daily basis and is extremely helpful at recalling certain events or noticing a pattern to your observations. It can be crude notes, but the more detail the better. Make note of the weather, the time of day, the wind speed (low, moderate etc.) the atmosphere (foggy, snowing, sunny etc.) the blade direction. Note any physical responses, or any health issues. Any changes in behavior of your children, pets, livestock. All of these are very important, as well as recording the disturbances in the home (noise, vibration etc.)

Wind farm opponents cheer federal study of health effects

Daniel d’Entremont stands outside his house next to a 17-turbine wind farm in Lower West Pubnico, N.S., in this 2006 file photo, after his family had to move out because of noise. Health Canada is planning a study to examine the possible links between wind-turbine noise and health effects reported by people living near the structures.

Wind Farm Noise and Health, new research released in 2011

Centrally, she found that common WTS symptoms are most apt to occur in people with particular pre-existing conditions; specifically, she found “strong and statistically significant relationships” between three pre-existing conditions and the likelihood that residents would report new or aggravated health responses when turbines are operational nearby16:

Pre-existing motion sensitivity appears to be make it more likely to experience symptoms of waking in alarm and/or a sense of internal pulsations in the chest or abdomen

People with migraine disorders report even more severe headaches than they’re used to when turbines are operational

Residents with previous inner-ear damage from noise or chemotherapy are more apt to report new onset of tinnitus.Similar to the findings of all of these studies, chronic sleep disturbance is the most common symptom Pierpont has identified. Exhaustion, mood problems, and problems with concentration and learning are natural outcomes of poor sleep. She also often stresses that her work suggests that older people and young children are more at risk than adolescents and young to middle-aged adults.

However, the papers considered here are assessing changes in health: typically, subjects report symptoms appearing, or increasing, after wind farms began operation, and decreasing when turbines are not operating or the subjects are away from the area.

– electrical transformers – generate EMF within the wind farm and are no different to electric transformers for any source;

– underground network cables – governed by protection guidelines like other cabled sources. The consistent view of published reviews and government guidelines is that any EMF generation by underground cables is not evident at the surface because of protective features such as phase conductors and screening.

Some authors discuss particular features of electrical activity that they believe occur with wind farms (high frequency spikes of electricity) that they link to the same phenomenon as sick building syndrome, and which they propose may account for some of the symptoms of people disturbed by proximity to wind turbines. This view is not supported in the majority of published literature.

Summary

While many studies indicate that exposure to electric and magnetic fields do not cause health effects, and some phrase this as being unlikely to be harmful at the levels normally found in homes, there is some uncertainty regarding certain health effects: specifically the possibility of EMR contributing to the risk of childhood leukaemia in households living very close to overhead power lines.

The range of reviews in the mainstream scientific literature conclude that there is not evidence of any link between health effects and the EMR generated around wind turbines, and that the theories that various effects can be attributed to EMR are conjecture and unproven.